Five Words, Five Ways x 10: Sephiroth
by Idle Stripe
Summary: 5W5W is back, fans! Watch fifty words explain Tora and Sephiroth's relationship in the only style I write in: mine! Characters and settings of 'FFVII' and associates belong to SquareEnix, Tora belongs to me.


_**-Five Words, Five Ways x 10-**_

_**-A series of 'Final Fantasy VII' drabbles centred on Tora and Sephiroth's relationship-**_

=^w^=

Declaration: 

'_To all SOLDIER personnel, _

_Can you PLEASE stop staring at me as I pass you in the hall? I realise that I've got legs and a butt, but I'm only sixteen, for Gaia's sake! Do me a favour and stop gawking or I'll get General Sephiroth onto your tails. _

_Sincerely, _

_Tora Altona.'_ –posted on Director Lazard's desk and all over Shinra Headquarters.

Men: 

Sephiroth had no real method for dealing with women on a _good_ day. How was he supposed to know Tora was going through 'womanly problems' when she began cursing men in Wutaiian and destroying the kneecaps of the poor cadets Angeal had forced her to spar with?

"Tora...what are you doing?"

"Commander Rhapsodos made me do sit ups with a sore back. I'm merely returning the favour."

_Note to self: Avoid female Turks when having their womanly problems._

Sneak: 

Tora + Sephiroth + stealth practice + Sephiroth's apartment + Zack's video camera = blackmail for the rest of the week until Masamune found it.

Formula: 

Only once was he roped into attending a public showing of a test done on one of the prisoners, and it was something he never saw again. Watching Tora scream as the mako was pumped into her body made him feel like he should be barging through the glass window and ripping Hojo to shreds for what he was doing to her. As her screaming got louder Sephiroth flinched.

She'd only just found out he'd upped her dosage.

Immortal: 

"_Bodies are material. Memories are immortal."_

Cloud took that to heart every time he felt the silver haired man in his head. He also took the hugs Tora offered to comfort him whenever it happened; unlike him, she had only _good_ memories of him.

Adapter: 

"Damn it!"

"What happened, sir?"

"None of your business, Tora."

"I brought your laptop's charger with me."

"Thank you."

"You're welcome, sir."

He doesn't need to know _she_ drained most of the battery.

Herd: 

One of the things Tora missed about her home in Wutai was Chocobo rodeo, whatever that was. Sephiroth made the mistake of asking her what that was, to which she responded with an evil smirk and a glint in her eye that made him shiver.

A week later, the training area had been overrun by SOLDIER personnel watching the prisoner jumping on the backs of a herd of Chocobos. The General groaned; he just had to ask, didn't he?

Module: 

_CLONK._

The training manual connected solidly with the side of his head before falling to the floor of his apartment with a loud THUNK. Green eyes blinked up at the Wutaiian, who was pouting and folding her arms.

"I don't want to learn how to wield a sword." she stated flatly.

West: 

"How the hell are you supposed to know your way around here using _that_? All you need to know is that the sun sets in the West and rises in the East, and at high noon it's always North so more than likely you'll want to go South."

In the end he discards the map and allows Tora to teach him how to use the sky to lead him home.

Time: 

Cloud didn't want to remember Sephiroth, but Tora did; there's a small shrine near the mako reactor in Nibelheim, hidden behind a rock so no-one can destroy it. It reminds her of all the time they had and how it had been ripped from them too soon. Chances are if you were to look at it right now, you'd see a silver silhouette gazing upon it and wishing for time to return to them.

Hall: 

One of the General's secret pleasures is skating along a length of polished floor in a pair of socks. He spends every Wednesday night doing this with Tora as a way of keeping it to himself.

Violence: 

"You think you've seen it all, Sephiroth. You've obviously never seen children as young as five being forcefully ripped from their mother's arms and young men being dismembered for protecting their families. Then again, maybe you have; you're only SOLDIER, after all."

Fantastic: 

The silence that accompanies Tora's frequent bouts of illness; apparently she's anaemic and dairy intolerant.

Topic: 

"Do you think she was taught that or do you think it's natural?"

"Watch the way her face twists into one of concentration next time."

"Hm...I still say it's natural."

"No way, she was taught that."

"Will you two _please_ stop debating about my ability to hit a target in the bullseye every time? I can do it; that should be enough for you!"

Pacifier: 

"Get back here, Tora!"

"I've got rights too, sir!"

A striped blur and a black blur hurtled past the General and he sighed, grabbing both Tora and Zack by the scruffs of their collars.

"What's going on here?" Sephiroth asked.

"He tried to make me take sword lessons!" Tora pointed directly at Zack's nose.

"She hit me with her staff!" the black-haired SOLDIER countered. The silver-haired man sighed and shook them both, dropping them to the ground and walking away.

"Next time I won't be so kind." he warned.

Mining: 

Getting information out of Tora was like mining for materia: you had to work really hard to get even one piece.

Genius: 

Here's an idea: take one SOLDIER General and one Wutaiian prisoner, and lock them in a room together so they can solve whatever problems they have with each other.

Yeah, Zack didn't think it was such a good idea either.

Deadline: 

How is it that, despite not having an actual job with Shinra and not being able to use English properly, she managed to keep him to every deadline that was thrust upon him?

The answer he found out from the Lifestream: she stole glances at his appointment book before she delivered it to him whenever he left it behind.

Ticket: 

Costume: 500 Gil. Makeup: 100 Gil. Wig: 150 Gil. Contacts: 50 Gil. Fake weapon: 35 Gil. Ticket to the SOLDIER Conference: 2500 Gil. Watching Tora masquerade as Sephiroth for five hours: Priceless. Capturing Sephiroth's face when he saw his doppelganger: Even better.

Bottle: 

Sephiroth had fallen victim to alcoholism only once, and that was after he heard that Angeal had died. Similarly, it was the only time he allowed himself to break; lucky for him Tora had the shoulder he could cry on.

Cheer: 

Every Christmas the Turks, AVALANCHE and the children all gathered in the Lost Pathways orphanage's main living room to decorate the tree. Various decorations covered its boughs – tinsel of every colour imaginable, baubles of every colour imaginable, and small photo frames with pictures of various families. One picture Ethan insists goes on the front of the tree is a picture of his 'sister' with Cloud, two black-haired men, a red-haired man, and a silver haired man.

"The picture is so cheerful; it makes sense for everyone to see it." he reasons.

Simplicity: 

Watching the young Wutaiian teenager trying to work a phone reminded the stoic General how simple life used to be, before having a blade thrust at him and technology whirring in his ear every five seconds.

Proper: 

The black dress ended just at her knees and flared out at her hips, the top half twining around her neck to hold it up. A simple silver chain was tied around her waist to break it up a little and thin silver bracelets decorated her wrists and ankles. Two tiny crystals sat in her ears, proudly shown off thanks to the simple ponytail her hair had been pulled back into and fastened with a black band. She fidgeted nervously, looking down at her legs.

"Um...Cloud bought me the dress and the accessories. He said that it was a crime for me not to go to the ball."

"He was right. You look beautiful, Tora."

If Cloud so much as looked at her wrong, he was going to pay.

Pity: 

It was always olive, white, a little red, white, olive.

"Don't touch it! I don't need anyone's pity! Besides, even if I could heal it don't you think I would have by now?"

Showing off her arm made her situation worse, but no-one commented on how she should be outside enjoying her life rather than cooped up inside being pumped full of mako like a SOLDIER; she didn't ask for her abduction.

Analyst: 

"You couldn't get a clue during the clue mating season if you smeared your naked body with clue musk and did the clue dance in a field full of horny clues!"

Tora really had been there too long; she knew his social side too well.

Slip: 

WHUMPH.

"Did you try to stop yourself again, Sephiroth?"

"Shut up and help me take my skis off, Tora."

Laying: 

"Look! There's another one!"

"And what exactly are you supposed to do with it once you see it?"

"You spend way too much time with Commanders Hewley and Rhapsodos, sir. Lie back and just _watch_ the stars, okay?"

"Okay."

"Um...sir?"

"Hm?"

"Can I have a cuddle? I didn't realise that Midgar was so cold."

"If you must, Tora."

Overtime: 

Years later, when the orphanage was quiet and she was holed up in her study trying to finish something for Rufus or Reeve, Tora would rub at her temples and remind herself that her silver-haired friend used to do the same thing. He, however, never had children coughing in the distance thanks to a virus spreading all through Edge.

Restaurant: 

The first time Tora went to a restaurant, she was with Sephiroth. He invited her out to cover his ass about the rumour that he was screwing both Angeal and Genesis in their off time. Everything amazed her: the waiters, the service, the setup of the room, even the fact that the knives and forks gleamed in the light.

What _really_ amazed her was the cute waiter who tried to flirt with her and Sephiroth nearly gutting him for trying to flirt with her. He was just being nice, really!

Room: 

KNOCK KNOCK.

"...mrgh?"

"Seph, it's me. Can I come in?"

"Tora? What are you doing all the way out – why are you still clothed?"

"I decided to sleep in my clothes."

"Try again."

"Some of the Third Classes decided to go for a midnight run while playing 'Pound The Prisoner' at the same time. They forgot I could run faster than they could and I lost them somewhere near Sector Three."

"You can borrow one of my shirts. Get in here."

"I'm so sorry, Seph. Your place was the closest and Angeal's is right near the labs, which is the _last_ place I want to think about right now."

"It's fine, Tora, I wasn't – what are you doing?"

"You weren't in bed, were you? Ugh, after all the time I took to lecture you about proper sleeping habits...that's it, come here; we're sleeping together."

"_What?"_

"Don't be dirty; you can keep me warm while I keep away the nightmares."

"Okay..."

"There. Goodnight."

"Goodnight, Tora."

Handicap: 

Scars were not a handicap, no matter how much Cloud tried to burden himself with his. Tora was living proof of that; she could use her right arm as well as her left thanks to some on-the-fly training from a (surprisingly) ambidextrous General-turned-madman.

Scotch: 

Tora wasn't fancy, classy or elegant, so it became common for one to see her with a glass of scotch in her hand as she sat in the main living room of Lost Pathways and rifled through an old photo album, filled to the brim with the happier times she spent in Shinra.

Zack found it odd that, even in the Lifestream, Sephiroth enjoyed the same stuff when he could have anything his heart desired.

Revenue: 

During the incident with Jenova, Tora stumbled across a small file in the old Shinra Mansion detailing Sephiroth's accounts. She was impressed with how much he made all the way through his SOLIDER life – cadet, Third Class, Second Class, General. She was disgusted at how much he had to splurge with after tax was paid – damn SOLDIER wasn't taxed as hard as the rest of the Planet. But it was the 'Revenue' section that really made her fall over backward.

Sephiroth had set up a fund for her all throughout their time in Shinra. She suddenly laughed.

"Even madmen had hearts once." she stated.

Rank: 

He hated times like these.

"Screw you!"

"Address me properly, Altona."

"Screw you! ...sir."

"Thank you."

He hated pulling rank.

Present: 

"And you watch this for _entertainment?_"

"Yes Seph, I do."

"Zack has a simple mind. He thinks being dressed up like a Christmas present is a turn on and if a girl has bigger boobs than her brain she's date-worthy."

"And how do you know all this?"

"Yes Tora, how _do_ you know?"

"I'm basing my theories on this movie. I haven't been given 'The Talk' yet so I have absolutely no idea what's going on there."

"Before you ask, no."

"Christmas present, then?"

"Please tell me you're not planning 'The Talk' for me now that I've said that..."

Equality: 

Sephiroth believed that there was nothing more important to him than spending a movie night at Zack's place with Cloud, Angeal, Genesis, Zack, himself and Tora all loudly voicing their opinions on whatever movie had been played and the senior officers drunkenly playing Strip Poker while the younger ones slept.

Everyone was a friend during those times. No-one was 'sir'.

Taste: 

Dumbapples and superiority: Genesis. Mint toothpaste and honour: Angeal. Rainwater and naivety: Cloud. Unidentifiable foodstuffs and playfulness: Zack. Cinnamon and secrecy: Tora.

Vast: 

"Here we go, sir."

"_Cold!"_

"Sorry, sir. Now I'll start off gentle and work my way up only when you say so."

"Alright – _ah!_"

"Whoops, I accidentally touched the wrong thing."

"You think?"

Having sunburn on your back was never fun; Sephiroth was learning the hard way. He thought the mako was supposed to reduce the risk of it happening.

"Just why were you training without your coat in the sun, anyway?"

"It's leather."

"Ah. Explains it all, really."

"Just keep going."

"Is that better?"

"Yes, thank you."

Tora seemed to have a large bag of tricks; she could fix _anything_ he managed to get himself into.

Paper: 

Tora had recently acquired the knowledge of how to make a paper aeroplane (courtesy of the redheaded Turk; thanks Reno). She'd also worked out how to write on them before folding them. Unfortunately, her English still wasn't up to speed so she wrote all the notes in Wutaiian. In the end, she just folded the planes and threw them.

Straight into the centre of Sephiroth's forehead. Every time.

Sample: 

Kisses ranged in styles, from hot and heavy to soft and sweet and from with tongue to without tongue. They also varied in location: from the forehead to the feet. Even though he stuck to sweet ones, Sephiroth made sure to give Tora a full example at every opportunity he could.

Inane: 

Looking back on it now, he realised that burning Nibelheim to the ground was an idiotic thing to do. The sounds of people screaming still haunted him, but nothing stuck to him more than the shocked look on her face as she held a young boy to her chest.

"_I trusted you with my life, Sephiroth..."_

He was a monster for destroying her trust; he could see that now.

Near: 

On the days when he could convince Aerith to let him, Sephiroth takes an ethereal form and quietly moves through the orphanage after Tora, watching her fulfil her duty as the children's primary carer. He sees many things in her eyes as she does so: joy when someone gets a good grade, disappointment when someone gets caught, mischief when she manages to trick someone. When everything goes quiet, and the children are in bed, he sits beside her on the black leather couch in the main living room and puts his arms around her despite the fact she can't feel it.

He knows that this is as close as he'll ever get to Tora again.

Multiple: 

Glowing green light awoke him first, the pain of looking at it burning his retinas. Opening his eyes further, he spied a Full Cure materia in a pale olive hand hovering over his chest healing all his wounds.

"Can you hear me, sir?" a voice asked before the hand and the materia was ripped away from him.

"Do not touch the General!" he heard Genesis hiss.

"Fine, then you can explain to him why he's still alive." the voice growled in Wutaiian. Sephiroth slowly sat up and looked at said Wutaiian, held tightly in a grip of Genesis's. The Full Cure still gleamed from her hand.

"Thank you." he said to her. Her gold eyes lit up like suns and she grinned, showing two rows of oddly white teeth. Genesis threw her back toward the other nine Wutaiian prisoners and strode toward the door.

"Director Lazard is waiting for you." he told him sharply.

Association: 

Tora blinked at the piece of paper that had been thrust at her by a (fake) blonde girl who had boobs bigger than her brain. Squinting a little, she tried to make out some of the words on it but to no avail.

"I'm sorry, I can't read that," she said, "My English isn't the best."

"I represent the Silver Elite," the girl growled, "and if we catch you around the General again you'll regret it."

"I highly doubt that. One, you could bring the entirety of the Silver Elite and I would still kick your butts. Two, he's right behind you." The girl spun around quickly, hearts in her eyes. Tora took the opportunity to give her a sound kick to the back which sent her sprawling into the dusty ground.

"Sorry, but I don't touch weirdos like you with my hands." The girl screeched at the sky and stalked away, dust covering her from head to foot. Tora grinned and crossed her arms over her chest as Sephiroth walked up.

"Why are you smiling like the cat that just devoured the aviary?" he asked.

"I had a meeting with an associate," she replied, "I doubt she'll be bothering me again." The General glanced over at the piece of paper the girl had left behind and smirked. An upside to the Wutaiian was her ability to keep his fans at bay; they couldn't touch her when they knew he was protecting her from them.

Restriction: 

Genesis took pride in knowing the prisoners' boundaries and he wasted no breath in enforcing them. Sephiroth took pride in pummelling the redhead every time he tried to restrict Tora's access to his office.

File: 

"What's this?"

"Something you need to know about that girl." Tseng leaves without speaking another word, and Sephiroth picks up the file he left behind. Thumbing through it his green eyes widen as each word is read; it couldn't possibly be true.

"Tora...why didn't you tell anyone about this?" The file is left on his desk as he stands and leaves, Masamune remaining in the corner for now.

She was the Shinra Secret's youngest daughter. She was more precious than materia.

Hojo was a bastard; he supposed he knew that, too.

Conducting: 

The things in Sephiroth's life he can control: his work schedule, his leisure schedule, his sleep pattern. The things in Sephiroth's life he can't control: Zack, the weather, Tora.

Hotel: 

The water system was faulty. The heating was faulty. The air conditioning was faulty.

"Cheapskate."

"Who taught you that?"

"Zack."

"This is a temporary lodging; when I decide, we will leave."

"Make it now."

"Why?"

"A rat just chewed a hole in your coat."

"Damn it!"

It was the first time Sephiroth had left a hotel without paying the accommodation fee.

Causing: 

Even though the Turks had initiated the dropping the Sector Seven plate, no-one suspected what small domino effect would take place after that.

"You assholes! I hope you all burn in Ifrit's fires for what you did to those people! I'd just managed to get the town back on its feet again and you losers go and destroy it! I don't know why my father ever worked for you!"

For the four highest ranked Turks, it was a realisation that cause definitely did have an effect.

Roof: 

Sometimes she sits on the roof of the orphanage with Cloud and watches the night sky, pretending she can see the Lifestream. If she pretends hard enough, she can see green eyes looking back at her.

=^w^=

**Author's Note: I took these fifty prompts from the website http : / watchout4snakes . com. Take out the spaces and you've got the website. It's a GEM of a place, a real GEM. I have prompts when I want them now; my 5W5W series shall LIVE! *lightning, thunder and scary as hell laughter***


End file.
